Baby's Dreamland

A Little Girl Rocking a Cradle  Nicolaes Maes

Sleep, Baby, Sleep

A German Poem

Sleep, baby, sleep!

Thy father watches his sheep;

Thy mother is shaking the dreamland tree,

And down falls a little dream on thee.

Sleep, baby, sleep!

Sleep, baby, sleep!

The large stars are the sheep;

The little stars are the lambs I guess;

And the bright moon is the shepherdess.

Sleep, baby, sleep!

Drink a Round

Peasants at the Table (El Almuerzo)  Diego Velazquez

The Mermaid Tavern 

by John Keats 

Souls of poets dead and gone,
What Elysium have ye known—
Happy field or mossy cavern
Choicer than the Mermaid Tavern?
Have ye tippled drink more fine
Than mine host's Canary wine?
Or are fruits of Paradise
Sweeter than those dainty pies
Of venison? O generous food!
Drest as though bold Robin Hood
Would, with his Maid Marian,
Sup and bowse from horn and can.

I have heard that on a day
Mine host's signboard flew away
Nobody knew whither, till
An astrologer's old quill
To a sheepskin gave the story,
Said he saw you in your glory
Underneath a new-old sign
Sipping beverage divine,
And pledging with contented smack
The Mermaid in the Zodiac.

Souls of poets dead and gone,
What Elysium have ye known—
Happy field or mossy cavern
Choicer than the Mermaid Tavern?

Earthly Kingdoms

Las Meninas The Family of Philip IV  Diego Velazquez

The Kingdom 
                  by Rudyard Kipling
Now we are come to our Kingdom,
And the State is thus and thus;
Our legions wait at the Palace gate--
Little it profits us.
Now we are come to our Kingdom!

Now we are come to our Kingdom,
And the Crown is ours to take--
With shame and fear for our daily cheer,
And heaviness at night.
Now we are come for our Kingdom!

Now we are come for our Kingdom,
And the Realm is ours by right,
With shame and fear for our daily cheer,
And heaviness at night.
Now we are come to our Kingdom!

Now we are come to our Kingdom,
But my love's eyelids fall.
All that I wrought for, all that I fought for,
Delight her nothing at all.
My crown is of withered leaves,
For she sits in the dust and grieves.
Now we are come for our Kingdom!

Folly

Love in an Italian Theater  Jean Antoine Watteau

Blow, Blow, Thou Winter Wind 

by William Shakespeare 

from As You Like It

Blow, blow, thou winter wind

Thou art not so unkind

As man's ingratitude;

Thy tooth is not so keen,

Because thou art not seen,

Although thy breath be rude.

Heigh-ho! sing, heigh-ho! unto the green holly:

Most freindship if feigning, most loving mere folly:

Then heigh-ho, the holly!

This life is most jolly.

Freeze, freeze thou bitter sky,

That does not bite so nigh

As benefits forgot:

Though thou the waters warp,

Thy sting is not so sharp

As a friend remembered not.

Heigh-ho! sing, heigh-ho! unto the green holly:

Most freindship if feigning, most loving mere folly:

Then heigh-ho, the holly!

This life is most jolly.

Thanksgiving Eve

Old Woman in Prayer  Nicolaes Maes

Thanksgiving Exhortations  

from Deuteronomy 8:7-18

For the LORD your God is bringing you into a good land,
a land of brooks of water, 

of fountains and springs, that flow out of valleys and hills; 

a land of wheat and barley,
of vines and fig trees and pomegranates,
a land of olive oil and honey;  

a land in which you will eat bread without scarcity,

in which you will lack nothing; 

a land whose stones are iron and out of whose hills you can dig copper.

When you have eaten and are full, 

then you shall bless the LORD your God 

for the good land which He has given you. 

“Beware that you do not forget the LORD your God 

by not keeping His commandments, His judgments, and His statutes
 which I command you today, 

lest—when you have eaten and are full,
and have built beautiful houses and dwell in them; 

and when your herds and your flocks multiply, 

and your silver and your gold are multiplied, 

and all that you have is multiplied; 

when your heart is lifted up, 

and you forget the LORD your God
who brought you out of the land of Egypt, 

from the house of bondage; 

who led you through that great and terrible wilderness,

in which were fiery serpents and scorpions
and thirsty land where there was no water; 

who brought water for you out of the flinty rock; 

who fed you in the wilderness with manna, 

which your fathers did not know, 

that He might humble you and that He might test you, 

to do you good in the end— 

then you say in your heart, 

‘My power and the might of my hand have gained me this wealth.’  

 “And you shall remember the LORD your God, 

for it is He who gives you power to get wealth, 

that He may establish His covenant
which He swore to your fathers, as it is this day.

Vocation

The Thread Spinners  Diego Velazquez

Each Life Converges to some Centre

                   by Emily Dickinson

Each Life Converges to some Centre --
Expressed -- or still --
Exists in every Human Nature
A Goal --

Embodied scarcely to itself -- it may be --
Too fair
For Credibility's presumption
To mar --

Adored with caution -- as a Brittle Heaven --
To reach
Were hopeless, as the Rainbow's Raiment
To touch --

Yet persevered toward -- sure -- for the Distance --
How high --
Unto the Saint's slow diligence --
The Sky --

Ungained -- it may be -- by a Life's low Venture --
But then --
Eternity enable the endeavoring
Again.

After the Rain

The Rainbow Landscape  Peter Paul Rubens

The Rainbow
                     by Christina Rossetti
Boats sail on the rivers,
And ships sail on the seas;
But clouds that sail across the sky
Are prettier than these.

There are bridges on the rivers,
As pretty as you please;
But the bow that bridges heaven,
And overtops the trees,
And builds a road from earth to sky,
Is prettier far than these.

An Autumn Trinket or Two

Autumn Giuseppe Arcimboldo

Nature XXVII, Autumn
                      by Emily Dickinson
The morns are meeker than they were,
The nuts are getting brown;
The berry's cheek is plumper,
The rose is out of town.
The maple wears a gayer scarf,
The field a scarlet gown.
Lest I should be old-fashioned,
I'll put a trinket on.